Error Loading Mount Database, and Other Oddities

Edit: I used the (not terribly effective) search function. I apologize if this is a rerun.

I gave up trying to fix this seven months ago. So I went to Roma Surrectum (RS) for a while. Time has a way of making one forget, so today I decided that I wanted to play EB, my favorite mod, once again (it worked wonderfully on my old computer...).

I'm using a Windows Vista Home Premium edition 64-bit job. I have AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-Core processor at 2.20 GHz. I have 4GB of RAM. I have 2 ATI Radeon HD 4850s.

I have NOT installed RTW in any of the Program Files folder, and have instead made a new folder on the C: drive named "Games." This is because, despite turning off the infernal UAC, RTW is not liked in either of the aforementioned locations on Vista machines. Vista is not the issue; I played RS for seven months with no problems.

This is what I've done:

Uninstalled every trace of RTW/EB/RS/BI, etc, etc.

I then installed RTW, then BI, then EB 1.1, then EB 1.2, then the BI installer, as directed by that mini-mod's creator. I get the following error once the splash screen for EB comes up:

"Error loading mount database."

I have to Right-Click-Tab out. I click "Okay."

Then I get this message:

"Script error in eb/data/descr_mount.txt, at line 446, Column 1.
Could not find battle model for 'elephant oliphant."

I uninstalled everything. I installed up to EB 1.1. It loads up and I get to the main menu. At this point, EB will run off the RTW disk just fine it seems, as the BI installer hasn't been applied.

Then I install EB 1.2. Same error. So I figure that maybe I've got a bum download. I download the installer for 1.2 from another source. No joy. I uninstall completely and do it over again, this time with an installer for 1.2 from yet another source. I have tried this without the BI installer, and I get the same error.

I am at wits end. I cannot figure this out. Your help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to play EB, but this is taking up a great deal of my "game playing time."

Thanks in advance.

Edit 2: I "validated" my install, and the validation text file has nothing in it. So I don't know if that validated or not.

The validation should always return text, if nothing else a message saying you have a functional installation. If you run a validation and it comes up empty, the validation program is either not allowed to write the results to the folder you're running it from (typical if you've installed RTW/EB under Program Files or other "special" locations), or Vista redirects it to some other place, Bill Gates knows where. You would have to search your disk for the ebValidationResults.txt file in that case, and hope that the search function doesn't helpfully omit the location where it is stored, as it tends to do.

If however the validation takes next to no time, you may not have Java installed, or it may fail to run for some reason. The validation should take at least a minute. Check what is displayed in the "black DOS window" that opens when you run the validation.

Okay. It doesn't look like I'll be playing 1.2 for some reason.

I did a complete reinstall. Tested 1.1, and it played fine. Installed 1.2. Did the validation. NOPE. Made sure I had Java installed. I do. Retried validation. NOPE. Reinstalled Java. Retried validation. NOPE.

EB is not installed in Program Files. EB is installed in C:/Games/Activision/Rome Total War.

I get the exact same error as mentioned in my first post. I get this regardless of whether or not I install the BI files. I have no idea how to get around this Java issue so as to get a proper validation of my obviously unvalidatable (mount database?) install. I got nothing...

Edit: Got Java to work.

Edit 2: It appears I have a lot of "missing files." And changed files. And added files. This is what the validation tells me:

"You don't have an original installation; There are changes to files, or some are missing.
However, these may be conscious changes you have made, to remod EB. See below for details."

I can only assume that I, somehow, didn't remove all of RTW or something prior to installing EB 1.2.

Please show the results of the validation and I can interpret what it means.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bovi

Please show the results of the validation and I can interpret what it means.

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I tried that, but it's 560,000 characters long and the limit for posting is 500,000. So I've uploaded it to my yousendit account.

Code:

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https://www.yousendit.com/download/Y1RxcmxjTkwrV3lGa1E9PQ

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This is weird. You've got this among the missing files:

Quote:

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Missing file: .\eb.jar
Missing file: .\ebchecklist.txt
Missing file: .\ebignorelist.txt
Missing file: .\edtftpj.jar

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That is the validation program itself. I wonder why it would not find those. I'm also pretty certain I added those files to the ignore list. And why doesn't it register the zlib jar as missing too? AND it's not supposed to be in that location either, it should be under EB/Validation. I'm not quite sure you've got the 1.2 validation program. Did it ask you to download a checklist when you ran it? How many choices did you have there?

Quote:

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Added file: .\eb\data\ui\ancillaries\export_ancillaries.txt
Added file: .\eb\data\ui\ancillaries\export_descr_ancillaries.txt
Added file: .\eb\data\ui\ancillaries\export_vnvs.txt

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This doesn't make any kind of sense. These text files are supposed to be placed directly under EB/data, not further under ui/ancillaries.

Quote:

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Added file: .\eb\data\sounds\greek3\units\mistophoroi_pezhetairoi.wav
Added file: .\eb\data\sounds\greek3\units\pezhetairoi.wav

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These files are not EB files. They are supposed to be mistophoroi_pezhetairoi1.wav and mistophoroi_pezhetairoi2.wav, similar for the pezhetairoi. And the slew of other similar errors.

As for all the other files, I would say you probably installed 1.2 on top of an 1.0 EB installation rather than 1.1. Or for that matter, 1.1 on top of 1.0, I don't know. Can you confirm that it is indeed EB 1.1 you installed first after BI? Needless to say, nothing will work if you are lacking all the changes done in 1.1.

Okay, it seems that I mislabeled my 1.0 install icon as 1.1 when I downloaded it. Yes, I've been known to be a moron from time to time.

I reinstalled everything, and can now (it appears), run 1.2. However, my validation yields the attached results. In my haste, I did apply the sprites fix prior to running the validation. Could this be the reason for the odd-ish results?

Code:

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https://www.yousendit.com/download/Y1RyQ1ZuT2I5NVVLSkE9PQ

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Edit: Nevermind. I cannot run a campaign, apparently. I get this error:

Debugger Detected - Please Close it Down and Restart.
Windows NT Users: Please note that having the WinIce/SoftIce service installed means that you are running a debugger.

Neato. Didn't realize I had one of those.

So as to be methodical as possible, and to waste as much of my free time as possible, I went ahead an uninstalled the entire thing again. I then loaded RTW vanilla, and played the prologue.

I then updated to 1.3 and 1.5. I played a campaign with no issues.

I then installed EB 1.1. It'll start right up just fine; says 1.1 right in the bottom of the screen like it should. But I cannot run a campaign. I get the same "protection error" as I did previously. I didn't even bother with 1.2.

I've attempted to research this "debugger detected" nonsense, but all the solutions are for Windows XP, it seems. The most common fix is to rename the file amdfix.sys, and apparently, that has worked magic for XP users suffering from this problem. Unfortunately, I have no such file in my System32/drivers folder, or anywhere else for that matter.

I don't have a debugger, to my knowledge. I wouldn't really know, honestly. But I don't have WinIce or SoftIce, I know that for certain.

This seems to be about the first time I can remember not being able to fix some issue, and I appreciate all the patience and assistance bovi's given me. At this point, I have no idea what to do. This is frustrating because I have spent many hours playing EB on a very, very inferior computer to the one I have now, and never ran into any "debugger detected" error, or anything else. At one time, I was running five different mods of RTW. Now, I can run Roma Surrectum (which I uninstalled to give this EB install a go), or RTW vanilla (yay...).

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be grateful.

Edit: I can play custom battle all day long. Just no campaign.

NERO!! You'd play your fiddle while my computer burns to the ground!!

On a whim I entered the ENTIRE error message into Google. This led me to some old discussion forum about NHL 03 or something where some guy had the same problem. Someone told him to uninstall Nero. I did this. Campaign works for 1.1. Can you believe this?

Going to install 1.2, then the mini-mod pack.

Thanks, bovi, for your help and again, your patience.

Actually you could have also seen that Nero interferes with EB in the validation post, linked through the important information sticky. I would have pointed you to that eventually, once the validation made any sense ;).

Anyway, great that you got it working.

Yeah, I read that and discounted it because I honestly didn't think I had Nero. Then I read that it causes the EXACT error I received, and then I checked. I thought that I had already uninstalled my burning software because it conflicted with something else...Oh well, no matter now.